About Yoga Gives Back

For the cost of one yoga class, you can change a life.

Our mission is to mobilize the global yoga community to empower women and children in India to build sustainable livelihoods.

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds in order to alleviate poverty in India. We started in Los Angeles in 2007, determined to find a way for the global yoga community to help the poorest people in the country that gave birth to YOGA. In 2014, the US yoga industry is reported to generate an astonishing twenty seven billion dollars and yoga's popularity continues to grow worldwide. If a fraction of this resource can be redirected to help the poorest people in India, we can make a difference!! Many charitable organizations have emerged from within the yoga community, but Yoga Gives Back is a very unique campaign which specifically focuses and supports struggling mothers and children in India.

In 2007, inspired by Nobel Peace Prize RecipientDr. Muhammad Yunus' revolutionary micro financing breakthrough, Yoga Gives Back began supporting micro credit programs. Through the Grameen Foundation, we funded programs who lend small loans to women who are otherwise excluded from the conventional banking and financial systems.

In 2010, exploring a way to get direct help to the poorest, YGB developed"Sister Aid" programs to fund micro loans for poor mothers and education funds for orphans and young girls. YGB has selected and partnered thus far with successful Non Governmental Organizations,NISHTHAin West Bengal and Deenabandhu in Karnataka.

In 2013, YGB created"SHE" (Scholarship for Higher Education) to support destitute high school students to achieve higher education. Selected by YGB's partner NGOs in India, these students, despite of their financial background, are eager and have a huge potential to become future change makers in their own communities, their country and the world.

Over the last five years, donations to YGB have grown 35% every year, which has enabled us to fund more than 500 mothers and children in India in 2014. The number of fund recipients has, on average, more than doubled every year over the last three years. YGB is committed to fund each person for a minimum of five years to ensure to seed a real transformation.

Yoga Gives Back is now a rapidly growing global community of volunteers, students, teachers, and advisors who work tirelessly by holding event classes, distributing information, and working hard to help change lives.